Keeping Children Safe Online

Most of us, and our children, use social media and online apps to stay in touch. Keeping ourselves and our children safe is a challenge and teaching our children to use the internet safely and responsibly can be difficult. Wayne Denner is an online reputation and well being expert and can help you to protect and improve your online presence.He has a great blog and you can like and share his facebook posts which give practical advice for parents, young people and professionals. It's worth a look!

We (Suffolk Police) have received a high volume of calls this morning in relation to social media accounts on both ‘Instagram’ and ‘Snapchat’ that are currently actively seeking young people to follow them to gain access to a video. The video contains footage of an extremely inappropriate nature involving young children. This of course holds legal complications should you open the link, send it on or store the data on any devices, however we are looking to minimise the amount of young people this targets. Rest assured we are actively working to take this material down as soon as possible.

The accounts are set up using different spellings and formats however the main link is ‘tanya kellock’ or ‘tanya k’ and has an image of a young girl with blonde and brown hair depending on the account.

If you are aware of this material being in your child’s possession please contact the school in order for us to ensure appropriate safeguarding action can be taken. Please do not hesitate to ask us if you need further information or guidance.

The NSPCC provides information for parents to help keep their children safe online. The link below will take you to their website, where you can find advice and support.

NetAware is an app which provides information to parents about the apps their child may be using. By knowing more about them, you can assess the risks to your child, and the suitability of the app for them.

Online Safety Alert - MONKEY App

A Tinder-like app for teenagers is putting young people at risk of predators by having no checks on users’ age, the NSPCC has warned.

The Yellow app claims to have five million users and is the second most popular free lifestyle app after Tinder on the Apple app store in the UK.

Like Tinder, users can connect with strangers by swiping right on their profile picture. When both users mutually ‘like’ each other they can chat by adding each other on picture-messaging service Snapchat.

But unlike dating app Tinder - which raised its minimum age to 18 this summer after charities said paedophiles could use it to groom children - Yellow does not have checks in place to verify ages.

Snapchat is popular amongst teenagers and has a reputation for being used to send sexual content. But there are systems in place which means it is not easy for users to find strangers.

What is Cyberbullying?

Safer Internet Day Video for parents

E-Safety Concern Form

Young People and the Safe Use of Social Media

Our Internet Safety Day Hall Event was a great success. Thank you very much to all of you who attended, and for providing such positive feedback. The art work we produced is diverse, thoughtful and very eye catching. It certainly lives up to the theme of the day, “Celebrating Differences and Respecting Others”. The work is displayed in the hall. The message from the day was to always be kind online.

As adults, we should lead by example. Comments made online, particularly on social media can be read by anyone. If you have any complaints or concerns about any aspect of the school, please speak to a member of staff or contact us directly by email or letter.

We know that many of our pupils, especially the older children, are enthusiastic users of Youtube. Although this is a great learning resource, please be aware that some of the advertising that appears on the Youtube pages may not be age appropriate for your child. You can find help and advice on keeping safe online on internetmatters.org. Encourage your child to be open and honest about what they are doing online, preferably using the internet whilst in a family room rather than their bedroom.

The following links and documents are designed to give practical ideas that you can use at home to help your child make the best possible use of the amazing resource that is the internet. The benefits and opportunities are almost limitless and it is vital that we equip children with the tools they need to use the internet safely and behave responsibly on it.